Ohio
Safety chair: Burn and vent after 2023 East Palestine, Ohio train derailment wasn’t needed
Controlled burn video shows fire after East Palestine derailment
The National Safety Transportation Board released videos of a controlled burn of chemicals in the aftermath of the East Palestine derailment.
National Safety Transportation Board
A controlled burn of hazardous chemicals carried out after the derailment last year of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio, was unnecessary, according to the National Transportation Safety Board’s chief executive.
Norfolk Southern contractors’ recommendation to carry out a controlled burn lacked scientific reasoning, discounted available temperature data and contradicted expert feedback, agency Chair Jennifer Homendy said Wednesday.
Homendy’s comments were in response to questions from Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance, during a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing.
Oxy Vinyls, the company shipping the chemicals, advised Norfolk Southern and its contractors that there was no justification to do a controlled burn, Homendy said, adding the tank cars had begun to cool.
Homendy said Gov. Mike DeWine and the incident commander were given incomplete information when deciding to vent and burn the five tank cars containing vinyl chloride.
“They were left out of the room,” she said of Oxy Vinyls’ experts. “The incident commander didn’t even know they existed. Neither did the governor.”
DeWine spokesperson Dan Tierney said the governor and incident command were presented with two options: vent and release the vinyl chloride or risk an uncontrolled explosion that would send shrapnel flying around the area.
Tierney said no one suggested they could wait for the tanks to cool down.
“It’s somewhat ludicrous to think that somebody on the ground in East Palestine didn’t know how to get information to the people making decisions,” Tierney said. “That’s where the governor’s frustration is.”
The final decision to do a controlled burn came from the incident commander with input from the railroad along with local, state and federal authorities, Norfolk Southern said in a statement.
“The top priority of everyone involved was the safety of the community, as well as limiting the impact of the incident,” the statement reads. “The successful controlled release prevented a potentially catastrophic uncontrolled explosion that could have caused significant damage for the community.”
Environmental testing in coordination with federal and state environmental protection agencies has shown the community’s air and drinking water is safe.
President Joe Biden visited East Palestine last month to praise what he called a “Herculean” cleanup and make a show of drinking the tap water.
A total of 38 rail cars came off the tracks during the Feb. 3, 2023, derailment, including 11 that were carrying dangerous chemicals.
At least five different chemicals were carried in rail cars that derailed, according to a letter from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to Norfolk Southern. The chemicals included vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylhexyl acrylate, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether and isobutylene.
Vinyl chloride is a chemical used to make PVC pipes and is considered a carcinogen. Exposure to vinyl chloride is associated with an increased risk of a rare form of liver cancer as well as brain and lung cancers.
Burning vinyl chloride creates the toxic gas phosgene and hydrogen chloride. The gases were used as weapons during World War I.
Various videos of the controlled burn show pillars of fire and subsequent thick, black smoke engulfing the immediate surrounding area.
Roughly 2,000 residents were forced to temporarily evacuate from their homes after hazardous chemicals were released into the soil, water and air. Some still worry about the long-term health and economic effects of the derailment.
“This is outrageous. This explosion – which devasted so many – was unnecessary. The people of East Palestine are still living with the consequences of this toxic burn. This is more proof that Norfolk Southern put profits over safety & cannot be trusted,” Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown said in a written statement.
Norfolk Southern said it has spent more than $1.1 billion in its response to the derailment. Since the fire began, the company says it has invested $103.2 million in the community, including $21 million distributed to residents.
Columbus Dispatch staff writer Max Filby contributed to this report.
Out of prison, Indiana’s caviar king back on Ohio River to find fishing holes taken
David Cox, of English, Indiana, says once he began setting his nets again after a two-year prison sentence and a three-year ban on commercial fishing, all of his once-secret spots were taken.
Can you eat fish from the Ohio River?
In 1975, future presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, then governor of Massachusetts, bet 20 pounds of New England cod that the Red Sox would defeat the Reds in the World Series. If things went south for Boston, Ohio governor James Rhodes promised to send Dukakis 10 pounds of Lake Erie perch and 10 pounds of Ohio River catfish. The Reds ended up winning and the cod was sent to the Convalescent Home for Children, in Cincinnati.
At the time, people were still eating catfish from the Ohio without too much concern. The fish were also served at several restaurants along the river.
There were warnings in 1977
But two years later, in 1977, The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission released the results of a study of contaminants found in the tissues of Ohio River fish. They warned anglers in cities such as Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, Wheeling and Gallipolis that man-made chemicals known as PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, had been discovered in the river fish. Later, high concentrations of mercury were discovered in the fish, too.
Thanks to the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the environmental regulations that followed, the river is now cleaner than it was in the seventies. And it’s still teeming with a variety of fish, including catfish, striped bass, drum and black bass, among other species.
But even though PCBs were banned by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1979, they are still found in fish, since they remain in the sediment in the bottom of the river. “Organisms live in the sediment and fish feed on them,” Rich Cogen, the executive director of the Ohio River Foundation told The Enquirer. Mercury is also a big problem, according to Cogen.
So the question is: Can you eat fish caught in the Ohio River?
The short answer is yes. But it depends on what species you are eating and where along the river you caught it.
There are also very strict limitations on how frequently you should eat them, according to the web site for the Ohio Sport Fish Consumption Advisory, part of the Ohio Department of Health.
In areas of the river between the Belleville Lock, located 204 miles downstream from the river’s origins in Pittsburgh, to the Indiana border, the advisory agency currently recommends consuming Ohio River fish no more than once a month max. That area includes Adams, Brown, Clermont, Gallia, Hamilton, Lawrence, Meigs and Scioto counties.
Here’s where to check
Recommendations change throughout the year, but you can keep up by visiting the Ohio Department of Health’s Sport Fish Consumption Advisory page, which provides updated information on when certain fish, usually bottom feeders such as carp, are deemed too dangerous to eat at all.
Here’s who should take a pass on Ohio River fish
The agency also warns that people who are more likely to have health effects from eating contaminated fish, includingchildren younger than 15 years old, pregnant women and women who are planning to become pregnant to avoid Ohio River fish altogether.
Just because you have to limit the amount of fish you eat, doesn’t mean the river is a bad place for fishing, as long as you limit your intake or do catch-and-release fishing. Just make sure you have a proper fishing license before casting your line.
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It isn’t over until it’s over. That’s the case for both the UCLA Bruins football program recruiting and for quarterback Brady Edmunds. Edmunds is currently committed to head to Ohio State but he took a visit from UCLA offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy earlier this week.
Kennedy met Edmunds on Thursday despite the fact that the quarterback has been committed to the Buckeyes since December of 2024 but could the UCLA Bruins be making a run at flipping the quarterback?
Edmunds has only had an official visit with Ohio State but could UCLA heave a heat check on the 6’5” quarterback? New UCLA head coach Bob Chesney is off to an unbelievable start to his recruiting with the Bruins and flipping a recruit of Edmunds’ caliber would be his most impressive move yet.
247 Sports has Edmunds as the No. 16 quarterback in the class, which would give UCLA a clear predecessor for Nico Iamaleava whenever the Bruins current starting quarterback decides to head to the professional level.
It’d be a full circle moment for the Bruins, as Edmunds was originally recruited to Ohio State by former UCLA head coach Chip Kelly, who bailed on UCLA to go run the Buckeyes offense. Ohio State is a great spot for a developing quarterback, as the Buckeyes produce tons of NFL talent, especially at the wide receiver position, which would help Edmunds put up some gaudy numbers in Columbus.
Chesney and the Bruins have geography on their side, Edmunds attends Huntington Beach High School in Southern California, which could potentially become a factor if Edmunds views UCLA as a program on the rise that’d be much closer to his friends and family than out in Ohio.
Time will tell if Kennedy’s visit will make a difference but UCLA’s recruiting has made waves in the first offseason under Chesney and the new regime.
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